Come To Dance: A Celtic Tradition

A U.S.-dwelling Brit of Irish descent, John Whelan is one of Celtic music's premier performers. He elevates the genre with a sensitivity to melody uninhibited by overpreciousness. The self-taught, nimble-fingered accordion player and tunesmith engages his audience with warmth, clarity, and a joyful liveliness too seldom encountered. Come to Dance, recorded live with no overdubs in his hometown church, marries Whelan's delightfully airy squeezebox meanderings to his band's equally skilled guitar, mandolin, bass, and fiddle, underscored by whistle and Cillian Vallely's pipes as featured on track 14's medley--a moment of rare and genuine beauty. Captured herein is the generosity of spirit and playful electricity of soulful worship, community gathering, and celebration of the creative life force. Traditionals, including the first song Whelan ever learned ("Father Flynn") and the tune he played for his first All-Ireland Championship ("The Concert Reel"), are interspersed with captivating originals that showcase not only Whelan but the band as elements of a contiguous whole. --Paige La Grone